When patients are examined by means of rays, usually X-rays, there is a need to be able to direct the rays through any selected part of the patient from the head to the feet and at various angles such as frontally or sideways. A longitudinally displaceable patient-bearing panel can facilitate such examination.
With existing equipment, there is a problem with sideways investigations, in that the radiation applied to the patient is absorbed in a discontinuous manner by the patient-supporting panel because the long sides thereof are provided with panel-guiding means for enabling said longitudinal displacement. The panel guiding means are generally made of metal, and absorb patient-investigating rays far more than does the rest of the material from which the panel is made.
One proposed solution has been to provide such guiding means along only one half of the panel length. While mitigating the above problem, such a solution is still not very satisfactory when investigating a patient from heat to foot.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention provide an examination table having a longitudinally displaceable patient-bearing panel which absorbs patient-investigating rays little and uniformly over its entire length. In particular, an examination table in accordance with the invention has no need for extra parts along the sides of the panel.